hey all, this is my first post in this section of the board, and this is a warning. unless you want to hear me rant about something that has been pissing me off for years: dont read any farther.

Ok, i was linked to the papermate site, and saw that they had a contest giving away an Ipod mini every day for x amount of time. Because i live in quebec i have to check the rules for these contests because more often than not quebecers are excluded from these contests. Lo and behold, we are excluded. I am a canadian citizen. I live in this country and have for all my life. The contest rules say it is open to all american and canadian citizens (not quebec tho). I can understand that canada has different import laws than the states, and i would understand it not being open to ALL of canada. but why is quebec the only one not allowed? what did i do wrong to not have the chance to win an Ipod or a dvd box set (im looking at you Space channel).

ok, rants out of the way, lets open the floor to comments and insults ( i know there are quebec bashers out here, so bring it on) as well as informed opinion as to why this is happening. any one care to comment on why a huge part of canada is being discriminated against?

Among other things, you have seperate immigration and import laws than the rest of Canada, one 'benefit' of being semi-independent.

Short of that, it's just easier for many of these companies not to deal with the complications presented by the different rules of Quebec rather than make the possibly minor or non-existant alterations necessary to accommodate them. In short, somebody needs to be paid a non-trivial sum to keep up with a third set of laws, regulations, customs, and culture, even when there isn't very much overall difference. Why bother?

good theory, but the problem is there are no different import laws for quebec. everything coming into quebec passes thru Canada Customs. this i know, personal experience and 6 months of my life. not to mention not even getting what i ordered.. but i digress. any other ideas?

My guess is there's some dumb Quebec law requiring all contests to be held in French. So it's either discriminate against Quebec by excluding them from the contest, or discriminate against the rest of North America by having the contest in a language they can't understand.

My guess is there's some dumb Quebec law requiring all contests to be held in French. So it's either discriminate against Quebec by excluding them from the contest, or discriminate against the rest of North America by having the contest in a language they can't understand.

Now thats plausible. yeah, a little research on my part, coupled with a friend that works at an english television station here in montreal tells me that they do exclude quebec because of language. Because the company or station or whatever that is running the contest in question has to post all the rules and such in and french and offer a french version of the site for french qubecers.

to this i say: screw em. if they cant read it, they wont enter anyway, so why do i have to be descriminated againts because of where i live?

That would be because of the governmental folks <strike>ruin</strike>running your province. It's the age-old dilemma of democracy, really. If you don't like what your representatives are doing, vote 'em out, kill 'em, or move away.

Just be aware that the politics aren't much better anywhere else either.

Q: Why are residents of Quebec restricted from entering your online contest when it is open to residents of other parts of Canada?

A: This is due to strict laws in Quebec that make residents of that province ineligible to enter many of our online contests. Quebec law requires that all promotional materials related to any such contest be presented in both English and French.

Unfortunately, this is not feasible for us. We hope that you understand.

From MuchMusic:

Q. I live in Quebec. Why can't I enter MuchMusic contests?A. When we do contests in Quebec, we have to go through a separate body called the "Regis des Jeux et des Lotteries" before we can do ANYTHING. This involves weeks of applications, and justifications, and reports, and very often these contests are on very strict schedules. Even if we wanted to give away t-shirts in a contest, we have to do this. Often, the sponsor doesn't want to wait 4-6 weeks to get approval from this body. They're on their own deadlines. Honestly, often, there just isn't TIME. But there's good news! Our sister station, MusiquePlus, has cool contests and stuff for all of you itchin' to get involved - Check it out!

over there is a perspective thing. over there can be germany for the view of someone in poland. or mexico from a texans point of view. im just curious. but youre right. you got plenty of your own stupid to deal with. mine seems pretty inconsiquential now actually..